Improvement in finishing leather



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN W. PHILLIPS, OF 'WAVERLY, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN FINISHING LEATHER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 222,944, dated December 23, 1879 application filed October 27, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN W. PHILLIPS, of Waverly, in the county of Tioga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Leather; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention consists in a new and improved process of finishing hemlock-tanned or so-called F union-tanned leather, the term union-tanned meaning a mixed tannage of oak and hemlock bark.

The object of my improvement is to increase the percentage of leather from a given quantity of hides, to improve the quality of the leather, and to save time and labor in handling.

To carry out my new and improved process I proceed with a quantity of, say, one hundred sides or fifty hides of average weight and tannage, as follows:

1 first prepare a mixture of five hundred and fifty (550) gallons of pure cold water, (soft water is the best,) and six (6) pounds of copperas, and suspend the sides or hides, if tanned whole, from rods in such a manner that they will be thoroughly immersed in the liquor, where I let them remain for the period of thirty-six (36) hours. The second step in my process consists in removing the sides from the copperas-liquor and immersing them in a liquor composed by dissolving one hundred and fifty (150) pounds of borax in five hundred and fifty (550) gallons of pure water heated to 120 Fahrenheit, the sides being kept slowly moving in this liquor for the period of forty-five minutes, or until the leather feels slippery to the touch. In making the change into this liquor it is best to put in at one time only so many sides or hides as can be conveniently kept in motion for the period stated, after which the sides are removed from the boraX liquor and immersed in liquor No. 3, which is a mixture of fifty (50) pounds of oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid and five hundred and fifty (550) gallons of pure,

water heated to 115 Fahrenheit, in which mixture the sides are kept moving for one and onehalf minute, or until the desired color is obtained, after which the leather is quicklyremoved from the liquor and placed in a pool 7 of clear running water, where, it is left until all trace of the liquor has been removed, when the process is complete and the leather may be hung up to dry.

In making the change from the borax-liquor to the acid-liquor it is best to take only a few hides at a time, so that they can be quickly handled and not left to remain toolong in the acid liquor.

After the number of hides or sides stated have been treated with the several liquors in the manner described,,the old liquors should be thrown away and fresh ones made for the succeeding tannage; or, if preferred, the strength of the spent liquors may be raised to the standard by adding a sufiicient quantity of the ingredients from which they are made. In order to insure the best results the strength of the different liquors or the quantity of the ingredients used therein, as also the length of time during which the leather must be left in them, must be slightly varied according to the weight of the leather and the degree of tannage. This must be left to the judgment of the bleacher, though the formula herein given, if strictly followed, will produce substantially the results claimed on any weight or tannage of leather. For the several liquors soft Water or rain-water is best, although not indispensable.

By my improved process of finishing, as hereinbefore described, I produce a larger percentage of leather from a given quantity of hides than can be produced by any process of union-tannage nowin use, because by the processesemployed in that class of tannage lighter liquors must he used in order to obtain the desired color, and consequently a less weight of leather is the result. On the contrary, by my improved process of finishing, as hereinbefore described, the highest possible weight that can be produced from a given quantity and quality of hides is attainable by using liquor of any required strength, the finished leather having as perfect a finish and as bright a color as could be made with a lighter tannage. Be-

sides, the leather produced by this process is very soft, pliable, and of a tough and even grain, instead of being of dark color and hard and brittle, and during the summer season more than half the time, and in the winter season more than three-fourths of the time,is saved which is required to dry leather finished by my improved process as compared with leather finished by any of the several processes now ordinarily in use. Finally, the effect of this process is to change entirely the color and character of hemlock-tanned and union-tanned leather to such an extent that an expert even cannot distinguish leather finished by my improved process from clear oak-tanned leather; and in point of a light bright color, thickness of grain, and solidity of tannage, the wearing qualities of leather finished by my improved process are, in fact, superior to those of oaktanned leather.

Having thus described myinvention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States- The herein-described process for finishing leather, which consists in, first, immersing the sides of tanned leather in a solution of six pounds of copperas and five hundred and fifty gallons of pure cold water, and letting them remain there for about thirty-six hours; next,

removing the sides from the copperas solution and immersing them for the period of about forty-five minutes in a solution of one hundred and fifty pounds of borax and five hundred and fifty gallons of pure water heated to 120 Fahrenheit, the sides to be kept in constant half minute, keeping them in constant motion;

and, finally, removing the sides from the sulphuric-acid solution and immersing them ina pool or basin of clear running water, substantially as and for the purpose herein shown and described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWIN W. PHILLIPS.

Witnesses:

J OHN J. KAULBUOK, ISAAC RHoAnEs. 

